Back from the mountains

Five days away goes by quickly, a whirlwind of movement through the still and the snowy. Being in the mountains made sense at Christmas. Somehow it reduced the day's significance too. The mountains still the mountains, snow-blown on this day as any other. The lake just as frozen and skateable as any other winter day. Snow-laden conifers and grazing elk reducing so many Christmas card scenes to a seasonal normalcy.

As I always do, I started straining for home by the end of the week, longing for my own rooms, to start on the ideas I found space in my days to think of. I think sometimes I need to bookend time away before I can fully enjoy it. That I like it more as a kind of time capsule, once the daily figurings are faded. Then, I remember the light that I didn't Instagram but gazed at for a long time, the coffee that tasted so perfect as I took a twilight stroll.